The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has determined that the U.S. wind energy industry has been materially injured by dumped and subsidized imports of utility-scale wind turbine towers from China and Vietnam.

The case was brought on Dec. 29, 2011, by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition (WTTC), a group of producers of utility-scale wind towers in the U.S. The case covers utility-scale wind towers with a minimum height of 50 meters that are designed to support turbines with generating capacities in excess of 100 kW.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which issued its final ruling on the case in December 2012, will now impose antidumping (AD) and countervailing-duty (CVD) orders against Chinese producers of utility-scale wind towers with AD margins of between 44.99% and 70.63% and CVD margins of between 21.86% and 34.81%, according to law firm Wiley Rein, which represented the WTTC in the case.

The DOC will also impose an AD order against Vietnamese producers of utility-scale wind towers at margins of between 51.50% and 58.49%.

“The commission’s determination today recognizes that over the last two years, in a period of peak demand, the U.S. [wind] industry should have been profitable,” says Alan H. Price, a partner in Wiley Rein's international trade practice and lead counsel to the WTTC. “Instead, due to the surge in dumped and subsidized imports, the industry lost market share, saw its profits collapse, producers leave the industry and its workers laid off.”

The ITC’s determination ensures that, following publication of the AD and CVD orders in the Federal Register, the DOC will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin collecting cash deposits on entries of utility-scale wind towers at the final AD and CVD rates, Wiley Rein says.

“These orders are important to help restore a U.S. industry and its workers that have been devastated by unfair price competition from Chinese and Vietnamese wind tower producers,” Price notes.

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